Is it possible to upgrade Macbook HDD...?
 

Hi All

I am just wondering if it is possible to upgrade the internal HDD within my Macbook? I bought my Macbook when they had 80Gb internal drives, and soon saw the drive filling up - quickly too!!

So, I am wondering if I can purchase a 120/160 Gb drive from somewhere online and upgrade my Macbook. Is this do-able...?

Ta

It certainly is possible, and not very difficult at all. Here is a link to a how-to video at OtherWorld Computing...

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_cente...cbook/med.html

WOW - so easy, thanks for the link.

So - what technical specs should I be looking for when locating a new HDD...? i.e. size in inches, make, model...?

I have no clue what to look for there are so many of them. Any advice on that please.

I'm in the UK and will probably use www.ebuyer.co.uk tp purchase the drive.

Thanks.

Any 2.5" SATA drive. Make and model is up to you. Don't buy an ATA/PATA/EIDE/IDE drive for that computer.

Trevor

Thanks Trevor.

So... would you suggest this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139249

or this one...

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138144

Also - is it possible create an image of my current disc and then copy this to the new one...? If so, how would I do this...?

Thanks.

Of those two, I'd recommend the 200 GB 7200 RPM model over the 250 GB 5400 rpm model, although both would be fine choices.

Yes, quite possible. You just need to have both mounted on the same computer at one time. Put one into an external (USB or FireWire) case, or in another Mac laptop connected over FireWire Target Disk Mode. As soon as they are both mounted on the same computer, use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone from one drive to the other.

Trevor

Thanks Trevor, you are very helpful and I appreciate it.

I am not too keen on the method to clone the drive - it scares me somewhat...!!

Is there no way I can do this with OSx backup utility...? Can I not create an iso file and then put that on the new drive?

While booted to what?

It's quite easy and completely non-scary if you have an external case.

Trevor

While booting with the OS Disk...?

I do have an external USB drive, are you suggesting I need to put the new drive once purchased into this, then connect it to the Macbook via USB?

If so, how do I make this new drive the primary drive that the Macbook boots from when I insert it into the inside of my Macbook...?

Sorry about the questions Trevor - I just want to try to understand the process before I embark on any upgrade. What I don't understand is that if I connect the new unformatted drive to an external USB case, then format it, how do I get the OS on it for it to be bootable...?

Ta

Don't some manufacturers make a 2.5" SATA HDD that is too thick?

I am going to change out my MB HD also.
My thoughts are to use Super Duper to clone my current HD using one of these:
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

It is my understanding that Super Duper will format the new HD and then it is just plug and play into my MB.

Am I correct?

Good point. There are a (very few) 2.5" SATA drives that are 12.5 mm thick, and won't fit. You do need to get a 9.5 mm drive (which is 98% or more of the drives available). But I should have mentioned that above, thanks solipsism for catching my oversight.

Trevor

Thanks again folks for the great advice here. I see the dimensions of the two I posted earlier are 7 cm x 10 cm x 9.5 mm - both fine.

Well, you don't have Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner on the OS X Install disc. You do have Disk Utility, and I believe that you could use Disk Utility for cloning drives as well--although I've never done that. But you need to have a drive to get the clone image FROM and one to record it TO. Which means that somehow someway you need two hard drives mounted.

Yes, that would work perfectly. Then when you were done cloning, swap the two drives. Or, put the old drive from the MacBook into the external case and the new drive into the MacBook, boot to the old drive in your external USB case, and clone. That way, you won't have the extra swapping step at the end.

Either set it in System Preferences > Startup Disk after booting, or hold down the Option key when booting, and select that drive. (Fine print: Option while booting works with PPC machines. I don't have an Intel machine yet so I can't say for sure if the same procedure works on your MacBook. Someone else here should know, though.)

If you put the new unformatted drive into an external case, then you are booted to the internal drive. That means you clone your internal drive while you are booted to it onto the external drive.

Trevor

You don't need to. The new drive will have the same address in your MacBook as your old one did. It will already be set as the boot drive.

Thanks Trevor - much appreciate the time taken to compose such a detailed reply. I do appreciate it, thanks.

make sure its the same speed as the one thats already in there (5400rpm), i heard that having a 7200rpm in a device that is 5400 can damage the device

This is completely and utterly false. Using a 7200 rpm hard drive in place of a 5400 rpm hard drive will do no damage at all. Someone is feeding you very bad information.

Trevor

well maybe not damage, but the fans will be running faster trying to cool it down, so it will be louder than usual

That isn't necessarily true, either, kel101. Operating temps do not vary uniformly with spindle speed, and if the difference isn't great, you may not see any change in fan behavior at all. Now, as Trevor has pointed out many times in the past, it is not axiomatic that a faster spindle speed translates into better performance, so one needs to check various sites for comparisons of particular models, paying attention to all of the relevant factors, when making a final decision.

Joe VanZandt

GRRR im going to complain to the websites i got my info from

Here's an interesting quote from Bare Feats on the subject comparing one 7200 rpm drive vs. one 5400 rpm notebook drive (link):

Trevor

I'm not disagreeing, just asking a question.

I checked the link and the power numbers are based on manufacturer's claims, not on Bare Feats tests.

Is there an industry standard defining the manner of making these type of measurements, or are we at the mercy of the marketing goons of these companies spinning various results in a way that looks good to gullible consumers? (Not referring just to power numbers, but in general.)

I'm not aware of any way to "spin" the power characteristics of a hard drive. You connect the measurement device to the drive and see how much power it takes at idle and when it is read/writing. (That doesn't mean you can't, but I'm not aware of a way to do it.)

So, if manufacturers are "spinning" those power usage stats, that's just another name for lying. I don't think that any of the hard drive manufacturers are going to do any outright lying about something that so few people even look at--I'd trust what they say in that regard.

You can "spin" the noise level measurements, though. Some drives make extra noises that are very annoying but don't happen all of the time. Measuring noise while the drive is NOT making these noises could skew the results. Also, there are several weightings (called A, B, and C) for deciBel measurements, and it's not standardized which weighting will be used, if any at all. Then there's the whole issue of what reference level is used (this should be included with the deciBel rating, but sometimes is not.) Finally, there's no standard for how far away from the noise source the measurement device is. So I would certainly take noise level measurements of hard drives published by manufacturers with a grain of salt.

Trevor

Thanks for the comments.

For the power measurements, rather than outright lies, I was thinking along the lines of optimizing test conditions so as to minimize the seek transients, or only reporting the actual steady-state write power, or similar kinds of shenanigans. For example, using microsecond resolution for measuring transients will likely produce significantly higher numbers than using millisecond or ten-millisecond resolution. Thus, using microsecond resolution transient numbers can yield a better result for average power numbers, while using ten-millisecond resolution numbers for reporting transient power will look better for peak power numbers.

@Trevor et al

Apologies about the further questions here, but I am about to purchase a new internal HDD (not finally decided which one though) and am still a tad puzzled by a few things. Hope I don't annoy anyone by asking this...

So... I place the new HDD in one of my external HDD cases, and then startup as normal. OSx finds this unformatted drive and then I can go through the motions of formating it etc. Up to now, this is all fine.

However, if I then insert this HDD into the internal HDD slot in my Macbook - there will be no OS on it, and I am puzzled as to how this would work. So, how do I go about making my new HDD 'bootable' with OSx Leopard installed on it...?

If you install an "empty" drive into your MacBoook, you can start up your computer with an appropriate OSX installation (optical) disk used as the boot volume. If everything is connected properly, going through the steps of the install process will find this "empty" drive onto which you can install OSX.

Actually, you can skip the part about installing the drive into an external enclosure to format prior to installing into the MacBook. It can be formatted when it's inside the computer.

If I understand correctly, previous discussions about installing drives into external enclosures were related to copying files from the old disk or mirroring the contents, etc. If all you want to do is install OSX onto a new drive inside your machine, that can be done without going through the step of installing into an enclosure first, just to get it formatted.

Many thanks for your advice Pete. I am undecided at the moment as to whether I should simply install a new internal HDD and just use my OSx disc to install leopard onto it, then add all the applications I have; or to 'clone' the drive thus negating the need to boot from the DVD drive and install OSx.

Devil and the deep blue sea me thinks... :)

Update: I have this morning purchased a Hitachi 250Gb drive which will arrive tomorrow sometime.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139249...specifications

Still undecided as to (1) clone existing drive, or (2) start afresh and re-install all my apps.

Convince me which way I should go... ;)

As far as I'm concerned, starting new is one way to get rid of all the debris left over from old installations of s/w I've downloaded, tried out, and decided I didn't want, and other miscellaneous crud that's been accumulated for no good reason. However, it's a hassle to re-install everything and reset all options to the way you want them rather than the default values that re-installation imposes.

I've never cloned anything before: I always do "new" installs, so I can't comment on pros or cons, or make a specific recommendation.

I think this may depend on how many applications you have and how highly customized they are. If you've done a fair bit of customization, then cloning is probably the easier way to go. Otherwise, starting with a clean slate has its advantages and means you won't be carrying any potential problems from the old installation forward to the new one. Yes, re-installing can be a bit of a hassle, particularly if there are updates to download for each, but generally speaking, installation on the Mac is a very easy process--sometimes nothing more than dragging the application to the Applications folder and perhaps supplying a valid license key, so it isn't an unmanageably large task. Were I you, I think I would opt for a clean install.

Joe VanZandt

Well, we're in for a busy night on Friday as I have also purchased one of these for my mate (hoping he'll pay me back :) ) and he's coming down to do the installs on both machines.

I am edging towards a fresh install... nice and clean that way. We'll see.

I will be adding a new HD to my MacBook also. I understand your advice about a clean install. I did a clean install with Leopard. Things seem to be running well for me now. Any other reasons not to use Super Duper! to clone my current drive to the new one and then install in the MacBook?

I know of no particular problems with SuperDuper! that would not make this a very reasonable approach, especially since you are fairly certain of the health of the system you are cloning.

Joe VanZandt

Upgrading is trivially easy.

Here are the steps to do it in a very easy manner.

1) Backup your existing system with SD. (you do have an external HD right? The one you backup regularly to? Right?)
2) Boot from back up (hold down the Option key while booting and choose the external drive) to ensure the backup is correct.
3) take out existing HD and put in new HD
4) Format new HD
5) Boot from external drive and use SD to "backup" your external to the new one.
6) There is no step 6.

Thanks all for the advice, however I am a tad worried now...

The units arrived a day early, and though I won't try the install until tomorrow evening, I now have some doubts as to if the HDD's I have purchased will fit.

On checking the HDD, I noticed that what looks to be the power connectors are totally different. On the internal MB HDD there are 4 pins that protrude out of the HDD and I assume these are for power. On the replacement unit I purchased, these pins are not present! The remaining connectors (for data etc) are exactly the same, but not the 4 pins on the left.

Should I be concerned and will I have to send them back...?

Link to the webpage of the drive you purchased.

Sure - here it is...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139249...specifications

While it is not usually necessary to jumper SATA drives, it is possible that some features of the existing drive can be enabled or disabled by jumpering; the extending pins are likely for that purpose. Their absence on the new drive would only indicate that no jumpering is necessary. I can see no reason from the specifications for the drive to believe it will not work perfectly well in your machine.

Joe VanZandt

Great news, thanks very much Joe for this information, I do appreciate it.

My mate is coming down later this evening and we'll have a go at the upgrades, I'll post an update later.

Wish me luck... :)

Update: Damit... I can't locate my OSX Leopard Disc... grrrrr..... have turned my conservatory upside down..!! Sooo frustrated.

Simply going to have to go out and purchase another copy tomorrow.... what a pita.

Apple offers a replacement set for only $20 plus S&H.

How do I get that...?

Update: I managed to get my new 250Gb HDD cloned off my previous 80Gb HDD and everything is working perfectly.

Thanks to everyone for their advice, much appreciated.

I can't believe I can see that I have 180Gb free!!!! WOW

I did the same yesterday. After Repairing Permissions on the new HD I get the following:
"Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
ACL found but not expected on "Applications/Utilities".
ACL found but not expected on "Applications".
ACL found but not expected on "Library".

Permissions repair complete"

Is this something I need to worry about or remedy?

I used Super Duper! to clone the new drive

No, you don't need to worry about that. If you care, some people have reported that they no longer have those messages after installing the combo update for their particular version of OS X. So, if you have OS X 10.5.2, if you download and install the OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update overtop of your existing install, those messages may go away.

Trevor

Call Apple.

Combo Updater solved it.
Thanks